If content provider desires to send promotional material to an AT&T subscriber, the subscriber must consent to receive such promotional materials before any messaging is sent. Such consent can be obtained by having the subscriber opt in an additional time and agreeing to receive the promotional material.
Unless otherwise stated in the terms and initial opt in, messages promoting other services must not incur premium charges.
Proper notification to stop promotional messages must be disclosed to consumer at time of enrollment.
If no response or a negative response is received, content provider must purge number from the active number list.
No promotional messages of any kind may be sent to a subscriber after the subscriber has opted out of services without AT&T’s permission.
Opt In
Standard Rate Program Opt-In and Off Portal Purchase Control Policy
For standard rate programs, subscribers indicate their willingness to participate in a campaign, and receive messages from the program by:
Sending a Mobile Originated (MO) message to the shortcode.
This opt-in process applies only to the specific campaigns to which a customer is subscribed and must not be used as a blanket approval to promote other campaigns, products and services unless specifically agreed by the user via their handset after complete detail regarding the opt-in scope has been communicated to the user. Unauthorized distribution of opt-in lists to third parties is strictly prohibited.
Keyword Policy
The following is a set policy around the use of keywords for off portal third party content to AT&T Mobility customers. This policy will detail guidelines around the use of keywords and the process of certification and auditing of services that incorporate keywords via SMS/MMS/WAP campaigns. This policy is to be an amendment to the AT&T Customer Experience Policy.
Certification of campaigns with keywords
New Campaigns:
Any new campaigns that incorporate different keywords must be submitted to AT&T in such detail that includes all keywords, their uses, and corresponding short codes.
Any new campaigns that are submitted to AT&T that incorporate multiple keywords under a single short code must disclose details on message flow for each keyword.
Any new campaigns that contain keywords will be certified as such to ensure the functionality of each keyword and the compliancy of each service dependant on each keyword. If functionality fails in any way, the campaign will follow normal certification failure processes (see AT&T certification within the AT&T CEP).
Any new campaigns submitted using multiple keywords must ensure that services behind each keyword are synonymous with the submitted campaign. Thus, keywords are prohibited to link off to entirely different services without the clear and proper opt in from the customer.
Any campaigns containing multiple keywords that link to additional premium services, subscriptions, or anything the customer would be charged extra for, must initially contain the proper opt in and opt out process.
Existing Campaigns:
Any existing campaigns that have previously completed certification can have keywords added to the existing service providing the following rules are followed:
All additional keywords must be consistent to the existing campaign services and terms and conditions.
All additional keywords must be submitted to AT&T like a new campaign would but must have indication that the submission is a change to an existing campaign and therefore will not be subject to a re-certification process, but will be audits according to all existing AT&T auditing and monitoring rules and procedures.
Auditing
All existing rules of AT&T auditing and monitoring will apply to any and all services running behind each keyword. If services behind a single keyword of a campaign that contains multiple keywords fails and audit, the service as a whole will be scored accordingly and thus depending on the audit infraction, be subject to deactivation at the short code/campaign level.
Overall Guidelines
Keywords under single short codes should not point to different services or automatically opt customers into additional services that are unlike or outside any service/campaign that customer has already opted into. Additional keywords can be added to existing services that point to different service options to the customer without additional subscriptions or charges to the customer.
It is the responsibility of the third party to submit ALL campaign keyword functionality to AT&T as is available to AT&T Mobility customers. If keywords that contain different services and or billing requirements are added to an existing service or a new service, they must be submitted to AT&T for certification as a separate campaign. It is vital that all keyword information is submitted to AT&T to ensure proper customer experience and compliancy of all rules and guidelines.
Premium Rate Program Double Opt-in
AT&T ability to waive double opt-in:
In certain limited instances, AT&T may waive the double opt-in on a program-by-program basis:
A current exception to the double opt-in practice is a mobile interaction with the call to action for network television programming. A premium charge call to action integrated with programming must be a single opt-in when the call to action contains the following conditions:
A Mobile Originated message with a premium price at $0.99 or below.
Interaction is transaction based messaging and is not subscription based.
On air call to action and advice of charge need to be clearly stated, inclusive of both visual and verbal – text size (10 font minimum), placement (prominent), and length of time on air (10 seconds).
Premium elements of the program are only offered during the broadcast.
A thank you/confirmation message including advice of charge must be sent following the MO
All pricing and billing periods/terms of the third party content must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed immediately adjacent to any customer submission field (i.e. phone number field or PIN code field). Clear disclosure of the pricing and billing period/term must not be on an additional page nor shall it be located on a page that would require the customer to scroll in any direction.
The following terms must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed on any cell phone number submit web page and any PIN code submit web page:
The initial and recurring charge of the content being promoted
Verbiage that additional charges may apply.
The customer will be charged automatically with no further action on part of the customer.
The term of which the charge will automatically be made to the account in the absence of cancellation of the service/plan.
Indication the customer will continue to received the charges until the customer cancels the service/plan.
Instruction on how to cancel the service/plan.
Disclosure of the mechanism for charging the customer (e.g. “on your cell phone bill or deducted from your prepaid balance on your cell phone account”).
All purchases must be authorized by the account holder. Terminology as such to ensure the account hold approves of the opt in of any third party campaigns must also be clearly disclosed on any cell phone number submit web page and any PIN code submit web page.
An internet hyper-link to the terms and conditions must be present on every cell phone submit page and PIN code submit page in the internet order path.
AT&T Confirmation Messages
Upon successful opt-in of service, a confirmation message must be sent to new customer. Confirmation messages sent to AT&T subscribers at minimum must contain:
Name of product and / or service
Total price & subscription terms
Instructions for terminating service (including a generic stop command)
Any premium subscription alert service must execute an alert to the opted in customer immediately after the customer has opted in. This alert should be a content alert and should be in addition/separate from the confirmation message.
See examples, AT&T Subscriber Customer Experience (Confirmation Message)
AT&T Opt-out Requirements
Any opt-out request must be instantaneous with the exception of email which must be processed within 24 hours.
Subscribers must be able to opt-out by calling one of the following: Connection Aggregator, content provider (company providing content via Connection Aggregator bind), AT&T customer CARE.
Content Providers must provide AT&T customer service reps with the ability to systematically remove a subscriber from a program – not requiring the customer to take action on their own.
An MT message confirming the opt-out must be sent to the subscriber - this cannot be a premium message. This message must indicate that the subscriber has not been charged and will not incur further charges or further communications from the subscriber. This message must be non-billable to the subscriber.
Subscription Migration Policy
AT&T has put in place a subscription migration policy that applies to aggregators that have content providers migrating from one aggregator to other(s). This applies directly to content providers that are selling subscription based services through DirectBill, and intend to change the merchant of record for an existing subscriber base. The also applies to changing subscription based product ID (QVPID) for the existing merchant of record, or changing the price point of a subscription offer.
Any content providers that wish to migrate their services off of one aggregator and onto a different aggregator must submit their intentions to migrate to both aggregators prior to any submission of migration to AT&T. In addition, a letter of authorization must be submitted to AT&T to confirm the migration.
There are two high level requirements for migration of a subscription::
Retain the subscribers’ anniversary date of the subscription
Minimize subscriber confusion
The DirectBill merchant must be capable of using the DirectBill Subscription and Refund Management API (SRM API).
Each aggregator should have received a document from AT&T CTO team outlining the step by step procedures on migrating an existing customer base. Please refer to that document or request a document with those directions prior to migrating.
A short code migration request may take up to thirty (30) days from the date the Provider provides the short code Proof of Ownership letter to AT&T. Upon completion of the short code migration, AT&T will communicate the specific migration date to the Provider. The change in Provider billing will take affect on the specific migration date and no Provider billing adjustments/credits will be made on the monthly invoice from AT&T.
AT&T may also set up a maintenance fee(s) for such migrations that occur.
Additional Subscription Considerations
All aggregators are required to follow the AT&T subscription policy. This policy states that any synchronous-event based products must be compliant with AT&T subscription API through Qpass. This will allow AT&T to subsequently control the renewals of customer subscription as well as allow AT&T customer service to more efficiently identify and manage off portal subscription campaigns in the case an AT&T customer calls in about the off portal service. Aggregators and content providers should be discouraged in pushing through ‘item’ charges on a recurring basis to get around the subscription policy.
Subscription Periods
Subscription programs must be monthly (not daily, weekly, quarterly, annually), unless mutually agreed by AT&T and the Content Provider.
AT&T does not support daily subscriptions. Daily messages must be prepaid in predefined bundles or charged one monthly fee.
Program offering daily premium messages must be bought in prepaid buckets or in one monthly subscription.
The result of a single sign-on process is one single subscription service, and rules apply for each single subscription service
There must be no minimum subscription period associated to programs. Pro-ration is not required if properly disclosed in content providers terms and conditions.
Programs offering trial periods must not charge any premium charges until after the trial period has completed and the subscriber has been informed of subscription pricing terms.
The billing period begins on the day in which the subscriber enrolled. If the AT&T subscriber enrolled on the 17th of a given month, their renewal period will be on the 17th of subsequent months.
Service flow and information must not be misleading in any way.
Termination of Subscription Services
When AT&T provides a phone number that has been removed from service, the content provider must remove this number from all subscriptions and phone number must not incur any more premium charges.
When a campaign has been designated as ‘Completed’ any existing customers or subscriptions need to be concluded immediately. Completed campaigns will be prohibited from maintaining an active customer base.
From time to time AT&T may supply a list of mobile numbers that have been deemed ‘deactivated’ to the aggregators. This list will be encrypted for security. It will be the responsibility of the aggregator to sort that deactivation list accordingly as to send only the numbers effected per content provider to be removed from any existing subscription services. The aggregator (if able) can also remove these numbers from their systems ahead of the content provider. It is strongly recommended that mobile numbers on this deactivation list are sorted as such that only numbers that are assigned to services per content provider are sent to that respective content provider. Aggregators should NOT be either blindly sending the entire list out to all of their content provider or sending lists of mobile numbers that do not apply to content providers that don’t have those mobile numbers included in their subscriptions.
General Advertising Policy for AT&T
All material terms and conditions of the program are clearly communicated.
A Billed to Business (free to end user message) must include the words “free message” within the text of the message and also state standard data (kbs) charges still apply when End Users click on a link in the message or End Users browse from their mobile devices.
Service Pricing information is clearly and conspicuously indicated.
All advertising, promotional material, and service Help message clearly display the opt-out information.
The service is not promoted as “free”, “complimentary”, “no charge”, “without charge”, or any other term that reasonably leads the customer to believe that he or she may receive something of value, entirely or in part without a requirement of compensation in any form, or that tends to convey the impression to the customer that the service/plan is “free” when premium fees are associated with the service that the subscriber will pay with a reasonable level of participation in the program. IF the service/plan or any merchandise is included within a plan/service/subscription, then it must be clearly and conspicuously initially represented to the customer pursuant to his or her authorization of billing for a paid subscription plan, the price of the plan, and its term. For example, a free ringtone offer requiring a customer to subscribe to a monthly subscription plan at a cost of $9.99 per month shall say, “Free ringtone with paid monthly subscription of $9.99/month.”
Subscription term and billing interval is specified/disclosed to customer.
Pricing in advertisements must be summarized to an estimated total monthly cost. (i.e. “$1/day equals $30/mth”)
Notice that the charge will be billed on the customer’s wireless phone bill or deducted from their prepaid balance.
Program advertising or its placement must not be deceiving about the functionality, features, or content of the underlying service.
Any promotions of ads of any kind must include participating carrier id’s and information on handset compatibility.
Programs offering trial periods must make subscriber aware of total cost after trial period in advertisements.
Description of charges must be clear. Must be as prominent as promotional font and must be in close proximity to promo details.
Pricing must be clear for each medium the program is promoted:
TV: Must include pricing, terms & conditions and opt-out information with font size as large as promotional font. On air call to action pricing and terms need to be clearly stated, inclusive of both visual and verbal – text size (10 font minimum), placement (prominent), and length of time on air (10 seconds).
Radio: On air call to action pricing and terms need to be clearly stated verbally.
WEB: Must include explicit pricing details, terms s & conditions location and opt-out information on the same page and in close proximity to promotional details. The user must not be required to scroll or click to another page. This information must be in addition to any terms and conditions provided as a link on the website.
WAP: Must include pricing, terms s & conditions and opt-out information on the WAP same page as promotional details. The user must not be required to scroll or click to another page. This information must be in addition to any terms and conditions provided as a link on the website.
PRINT: Must include sponsor identification, explicit pricing details, terms s & conditions location and opt-out information on the same page and in close proximity to promotional details. This information must available in the Advertisement.
SMS: As previously indicated, all pricing, terms s & conditions and opt-out information must be included in the first and all subsequent service messages.
Chat and Social Networks Policy for AT&T
Additional advertising requirements apply specifically for chat services.
Advertising for chat programs must not imply unapproved content.
For operator-assisted chat, appropriate disclosure must be made in the advertising and terms and conditions of the program.
Example disclosure wording: This service employs operators who are paid to participate in chat.
All social networking and chat applications or games which allow communication between users will be responsible for all of the safety tools below. AT&T shall provide all best efforts to ensure that content providers are adhering to the following safety guidelines by conducting ongoing audits of social networking and chat applications or games.
All social networking and chat applications or games are required to have the following:
An age acknowledgement tool at registration that successfully determines if the user’s age is appropriate, and blocks access if he or she does not meet the set age requirement
A minimum age of 13 is required for all non-romance themed games and applications
A minimum age of 18 is required for all romance and dating themed games and applications
A ‘Report Abuse’ function must be made easily accessible to the user with clear action provisions outlining how complaints will be responded to
Subscription Services Advertising Policy for AT&T
Additional advertising requirements apply specifically for subscription services.
Promotional material for subscription services must clearly indicate that the service is subscription based. These words must be prominent and highly visible to readers.
Must be as prominent as promotional font and must be in close proximity to promo details.
Subscription services terms of use (i.e. whole cost pricing, opt-out) information must be clearly visible.
Advertisements promoting “FREE” content will receive special attention to ensure subscribers fully understand terms and conditions of service and must adhere to AT&T’s general advertising policy.
Terms of subscription (Price, duration, opt-out process, etc.) must be listed FIRST in Ts & Cs section online as well as any other printed material. Price and frequency of subscription must not be buried in Ts & Cs.
Opt-out information must be clearly displayed in all advertising and promotion material. Where stop instructions are displayed, the information provided must advertise a generic STOP command, and additionally service specific stop commands – for example “stop polytones” may also be advertised.
Program Change Approvals
Campaigns are approved and provisioned based on specific parameters that were presented to the aggregator and AT&T. If the content provider wishes to run additional programs on a given shortcode, then each additional program will require approval from AT&T. All notifications to AT&T must be provided 10 business days notice prior to change rollout in order for AT&T to properly approve the change request.
The following changes require aggregators to submit a request to AT&T:
Campaign name or content provider brand changes
Campaign products line up changes (i.e. additional alert programs instituted other than those provisioned)
New and / or alternative hosts begin offering campaign (i.e. launch of new website offering similar and / or dissimilar products and services on existing campaign or short code.
Customer care information changes
Early termination of campaign
Program changes affecting consumers rights to privacy
The aggregator is required to summarize the changes and update any changes in the provisioning tool. The campaign can not implement the requested change until approval is granted.
Inappropriate Content
The use of inappropriate content in SMS campaigns is not permitted. Below describes AT&T’s position on inappropriate content. Campaigns that offer inappropriate content may be terminated. AT&T Reserves the right to classify any material as inappropriate.
Mobile content will be classified as Restricted Carrier Content or Generally Accessible Carrier Content based on existing criteria used to rate movies, television shows, music and games.
Content is generally considered “Restricted” if it contains any of the following restricted content identifiers:
Restricted Carrier Content
Intense Profanity
Intense violence
Graphic depiction of sexual activity or sexual behaviors > Nudity
Hate speech
Graphic depiction of illegal drug use
Any content that has not been classified as “Restricted Carrier Content” will be considered “Generally Accessible Carrier Content” and will be subject to be available to all consumers.
Profanity
Use of profanity in products that can be exchanged through the use of SMS technology is strictly prohibited. Lyrics, Wallpapers, Song Titles, SMS alerts, and moderated SMS interactive communications containing profanity must be removed. If a particular piece of content is incomplete without using a profane word, it is permissible to offer this product only after the word have been altered to be less profane (i.e. Sh*t)
Drug Use
Any reference to the abuse of alcohol, drugs, tobacco or other controlled substances is strictly prohibited. This includes verbal and non verbal actions in which a person could conclude that promotion of drug use is intended.
Sexual Conduct
Content of adult nature is not allowed. Adult nature includes sexual explicit images and textual communications that are sexual graphic.
Sexual Explicit Images:
No exposed breast or genitalia either cartoon or real, is permitted to be offered.
No images meant to insight sexual activity may be offered. This includes images depicting any sexual act.
Textual Communications
Any controlled communications between a campaign and subscriber must not contain content that could be considered sexually explicit. Content directed at encouraging sexual acts or to excite a subscriber in a sexual way is not allowed through SMS premium services.
AT&T Naming Conventions and Product Descriptions (DCBO)
All current AT&T naming conventions and product descriptions can be referenced at the following link:
ALL transactions are now required to be DCBO compliant.
To ensure compliancy for DCBO:
Description field should no longer include Short Code/Campaign ID/Merchant Name
Price points are not to be contained in description field
Description field provides clear, concise, customer-friendly descriptions for Off-Portal Mobile Purchases & Downloads transactions
Product descriptions should not duplicate a merchant name
Product Descriptions should not be acronyms that are not immediately recognizable (i.e. as BET or MTV would be)
Merchant names should be listed with the merchant’s URL whenever possible (i.e. magmic.com)
DCBO is a vital effort to help give customers a better understanding of what they purchased by providing more accurate details about the services they purchased on their bills. This effort will go along way to help avoid refunds and also aid AT&T customer service in identifying third party services.
See ATT-EG-01 at end of Provisioning Section
As a reminder, here is an example of the proper DCBO format for item purchases AND subscription services:
AT&T does not allow unique short codes to be live under two different binds or connected partners.
For each Aggregator, AT&T will enable an option that requires each Aggregator to submit valid values for Merchant Name, Short Code and Campaign ID for every purchase. These fields will be required for purchases submitted via the Purchase Web Service (API) and those submitted via Buy Link. – See ATT-EG-02 below
AT&T-EG-01
CONTENT_
PROVIDER_
NAME
PRODUCT_
DESCRIPTION
MERCHANT_
NAME
PERIODICITY
PRICE
SHORT_CODE
CAMPAIGN_ID
(aggregator name)
Baseball Tone
Mobisports.com
onetime
0.99
12345
98765
(aggregator name)
Weather Alerts
Jims weather.com
Monthly
9.99
98765
12345
ATT-EG-02
Field Name
Data Type
Num. Chars. Allowed by Qpass
Num. Chars. Displayed on Bill
Description
Default Value
Sample Value
merchantName
QMERCHANTNAME
ASCII String, cannot be blank
50 chars
First 20 chars
The merchant name presented during advice-of-charge, in purchase history and on the AT&T customer bill.
None
BET TV
shortCode
QSHORTCODE
Positive Integer, cannot be blank
16 digits
First 6 digits
The SMS short code for the product being purchased.
None
12345
campaignid
QCAMPAIGNID
Positive Integer, cannot be blank
16 digits
First 5 digits
The AT&T assigned campaign ID for the product being purchased.
